When it comes to #MeToo reports, Bridgewater State says not us

Tom Relihan The Enterprise TMRelihan_ENT

Tuesday

Apr 3, 2018 at 1:00 PMApr 3, 2018 at 1:04 PM

BRIDGEWATER – A local public university said it is unable to compile figures on how many sexual harassment complaints it has received in recent years, even as many other state colleges were quick to release their own tallies.

In early December, The Enterprise requested figures from Bridgewater State University about how many sexual harassment complaints, if any, have been filed against faculty or staff at the school – either by students or other staff members – at any educational or professional level. The paper also sought the outcomes of those complaints.

But Paul Jean, the university’s vice president for marketing and communications, said BSU would not be able to provide any information on such complaints, because it does not maintain any sort of centralized system that tracks them. The school also claimed any information it did have related to such cases is protected by the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, an education privacy law.

“BSU does not maintain a master record concerning complaints which are filed,” Jean said in an email. “Further, any outcome or other investigation record is too private to disclose under both FERPA and the (state) public records law.”

When asked if such information could be compiled and released even in an anonymous format, Jean said doing so was “not feasible, as no such spreadsheet of cases is maintained." The university did not respond to questions on whether it planned to compile the data on two subsequent occasions.

But many other state universities, including the University of Massachusetts Amherst, UMass-Boston, UMass-Lowell, Fitchburg State University, Framingham State University, Salem State University, Worcester State University, the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design were quick to either provide figures or information on sexual harassment complaints made on their campuses, or promise to compile and release them.

The Massachusetts Maritime Academy said it would provide the information within a 10-day deadline set by the state's public records law, while UMass-Dartmouth and Westfield State University said they would look into what they could provide.

The data that was released saw varying levels of detail – some included breakdowns of whether complaints were made by graduate and undergraduate students, while others did not, and most did not include information on each case's outcome.

BSU is the largest public state university by enrollment outside of the University of Massachusetts system, hosting 9,503 students in 2017.

Edward Blaguszewski, a spokesman for UMass-Amherst, said the flagship university’s decision to compile the statistics was driven by discussions with an on-campus advocacy group, Graduate Women in STEM, about issues of sexual misconduct on campus in the fall and a follow-up request for clearer data from a reporter at a local newspaper, the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

“We invested time with the (Equal Opportunity and Diversity Office) to take the data they had and assemble it in a way that was contemporary and spoke to these concerns,” Blaguszewski said. “This was not something you’d find in a standard or typical report that they do, but we thought it was important and worthwhile to take the time to do it. We could have said, ‘We don’t create that and we’re not going to give it to you,’ but because of the context, it seemed like the right thing to do.”

Renae Lias-Claffey, Worcester State’s communications director, agreed. “We’re a public university, and we’re subject to a higher level of scrutiny,” she said.

Wendy Murphy, a Boston attorney who specializes in Title IX sexual discrimination cases, said schools that are reluctant to provide figures on complaints may do so out of a reluctance to report very high or very low numbers, or have their figures weighed against other reports.

"Low numbers are worse because they indicate that the school is under-counting the truth and not including all reports but rather only reports that make it higher up the food chain," she said. "This is why I teach students to gather their own data and then release (it.)" Instances of workplace sexual harassment are believed to be significantly under-reported.

Jean, the BSU spokesman, did provide a copy of the university’s Clery Act Campus Crime Report, an annual report that requires universities and colleges to publish campus crime statistics and security information in order to participate in federal financial aid programs, as did most of the universities. But those reports do not include statistics on sexual harassment complaints, only instances of sexual assault or rape, as well as other non-sexual crimes, but they do include information on the university’s sexual harassment policies and reporting procedures.

He noted the campus’s Title IX office is staffed by professionals who are trained to manage and handle issues involving sexual harassment, discrimination or misconduct.

“It is important for you to understand what we have done in this area to build greater awareness and expand resources. In just the past few years, we have opened a Sexual Violence and Advocacy Support center,” Jean said. “That center has a full-time outreach educator and our Title IX office has a full-time investigator with responsibility for investigating any complaints.”

The center also employs two staff members who work to integrate education about sexual assault and harassment into the university’s curriculum, Jean said. The university offers a freshman-year seminar on the subject.

Sophie Fagerquist, a freshman political science major at BSU, said the university's unwillingness to compile the figures seems "awfully hypocritical" in light of a series of events and seminars on sexual harassment that have been held on campus this year. "We even have a speaker for the #MeToo movement, who will be speaking about what's supposed to happen next after that. They're still right to be able to show support for that movement, but it's hypocritical that there's no access to that type of information when so many other places have offered it up willingly."

Simone Lobos, a sophomore early childhood education student, said she suspects the university's reluctance to compile the data may be based around concerns about how the figures could affect its reputation and image. "But, safety is more important than the reputation of the campus," she said.

"They should be able to provide that information," said Lobos. "That should be given so we can have changes made for the campus, where we can let students know and have awareness of this and that it's not O.K. I think it would be an eye-opener to see how many people are affected by this, so that should be public."

Freshman Marisa Delvecchio said she'd like to know how prevalent the issue is at the school, but generally feels safe there and is satisfied with the current climate on campus.

"It's a pretty safe campus, everyone is nice," Delvecchio said.

This is not the first time BSU has been reluctant to release information related to sexual misconduct on campus. In 2015, the university attempted to charge The Enterprise $62,000 for access to records related to a rape case in its on-site daycare center, which has since been closed, and later provided only heavily redacted copies. When a pair of lawyers representing the victims attempted to obtain the same materials, they were given only pamphlets about what the campus does to prevent sexual assault.

The university was later ordered by the superior court to release the documents to the lawyers under a protective order.

Here are the figures on sexual harassment complaints released by various state universities:

UMass-Amherst: The campus received 34 complaints from graduate students between 2012 and 2017. Six were non-employment related and seven did not involve sexual harassment or misconduct. Twenty-one cases did involve sexual harassment or misconduct. Three remain under investigation, nine ended after discussion and agreement of the involved parties, four saw no formal complaint filed, two were dismissed after a review, and three of the accused chose to retire during the investigation, which ends the university’s inquiry. Of those complaints, 13 were related to sexual harassment that created a hostile work environment, four involved quid pro quo sexual harassment, three alleged sexual misconduct and one involved stalking.

Framingham State: Between 2014 and 2017, the university received one complaint each of sexual harassment, gender-based discrimination and retaliation made by a student against an employee and three sexual harassment complaints made by employees against other employees.

Fitchburg State: Since 2014, the university received three sexual harassment complaints made by students against employees, and six student-versus-student sexual harassment complaints. It also received two stalking complaints, one retaliation complaint and one sexual exploitation complaint made by students against other students. There were no employee-vs.-employee complaints.

Salem State: In the last three years, two complaints of sexual harassment were filed by students against faculty members. There were no findings in either case, and both were made by undergraduate students.

MassArt: The college provided a letter sent to the campus community from President David Nelson that said a photography professor there, Nicholas Nixon, had retired while facing a Title IX investigation into alleged misconduct. The investigation is ongoing, the letter said.

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